When my sister and I were 8 and 9, respectively, one of our favorite pastimes was playing “restaurant”, which involved setting up a folding table in our living room, covering it with a classy tablecloth in the form of a pink blanket, printing out a long banner stating our restaurant’s name on a dot matrix printer {which incidentally was “Misty River” – don’t ask}, and lighting red glass “bistro” candles – we created quite the ambiance. I remember one menu in particular – we made a salad with radicchio, angel hair pasta with a tomato sauce and shrimp and profiteroles for dessert – all out of one of my mother’s cookbooks featuring Italian food. I still to this day don’t know how the hell my sister and I made profiteroles at that age, but we did, and I actually don’t think they were terrible.

After dabbling in pate a choux at such a young age, for the last 23 years, I haven’t touched the stuff. Then recently, I made some gougères for a cocktail party using this recipe. I admit that I was a little intimidated by the recipe, worrying that my gougères wouldn’t rise properly or would taste like raw flour. But they were delightful. Soon after, I made the miniature salted caramel éclairs, which also were lovely and light. I have come to realize that pate a choux is really one of those recipes that everyone should master and have in their repertoire because the possibilities are limitless, once you get over the initial trepidation. I thought I would put together a little montage of some of my favorite recipes featuring this very special dough for inspiration – happy cooking!

The best thing about pâté a choux besides the test is definitely its versatility. Everytime I make it, I often use it for at least 3 or 4 of the ways you listed above. My favorite is the gougeres though, because they look so innocent and yet pack a punch. Your photos look great!

Thank you Danielle! I am so happy to have found yours as well – it is absolutely beautiful and there are so many recipes I want to try! I especially love the conversation heart mini cheesecakes – brilliant! xo

yum..i will have to keep all of your suggestions in mind…and your baby is just so stinkin cute..my little princess (toy poodle) does the same little stick out thing with her tounge…it just warms my heart 🙂 lovely post..sarah

Such a great roundup! Pate a choux is one of those things that when you say it, people are like “Ohhh…that sounds complicated.” Then you explain it and they’re like, “Seriously?! THAT’S how you make profiteroles?!” Total fake out thing, and I love it! 🙂

Totally! I think anything in french in the culinary world intimidates people needlessly. As with most things, I love that as soon as you get a sense of how the dish should look and feel, it becomes almost second nature (like dough and pie crust). Thanks so much for stopping by Victoria! xo

Omg I love pate choux for this reason! You can make it sweet and savory and it is beyond light and airy! In a particular culinary class the whole culinary class made different pate chouxs so we were surrounded by all kinds lol! Yours looks FABULOUS!

You should def look into taking a cooking or baking class one of these day. Even myself I am planning on enrolling in a couple classes this summer, I love learning about new techniques and recipes in the kitchen 🙂

Absolutely! The last cooking class I took up in SF was a croissant class, which was so much fun. Learning techniques from true masters instead of trying to follow a recipe is such a pleasurable learning process. Will have to take another one soon – thank you for the inspiration! xo

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